The expiration this month of a $5 million grant that funded 15 firefighter positions at the Chico Fire Department will result in several layoffs by the end of this week, Fire Chief Bill Hack said Wednesday. Come Saturday, five firefighters will have been laid off, reducing the amount of front-line firefighters at the Fire Department from 65 to 60, Hack said.
- PUB DATE: 1/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chico Enterprise-Record

A firefighter's 8-year-old daughter was killed by a falling tree Tuesday night while she was sleeping in her bedroom in Otis, Lincoln County fire officials said. Zaylee Schlecht, the daughter of North Lincoln Fire and Rescue District firefighter Ryan Schlecht, was in her bedroom with her younger sister when strong winds toppled a tree onto her home about 11:15 p.
- PUB DATE: 1/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Oregonian

VIDEO: Jason Kellner is scratching his head and thanking his lucky stars. He was on the interstate Wednesday night when the inside console in his car started smoldering and then it burst into flames. "I opened it up and saw a small flame," Jason Kellner told CBS 58 News. "I tried to pat it out with my jacked, it turned into a bigger flame.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 9:37:13 PM - SOURCE: WDJT-TV CBS 58 Milwaukee

On January 3, 6 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: Milwaukee firefighters responded to a fire at the Omega restaurant near 27th and Morgan on the city's south side on Wednesday afternoon, January 4th. The fire was put out -- and the restaurant was closed for the night. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 3:39:15 PM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

On January 3, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On January 3, 3 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On January 1, 8 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On January 3, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

La Crosse Fire Chief Gregg Cleveland has announced plans to retire after more than a decade with the city of La Crosse. Cleveland, who has logged more than three decades as a firefighter and chief, will step down in June, according to a statement released Tuesday by Mayor Tim Kabat. Kabat praised Cleveland for his work in getting national accreditation for the fire department, overseeing the merger of building inspections and code enforcement into the department, and helping the department become one of the first in the state to carry an opioid overdose antidote.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: LaCrosse Tribune

VIDEO: Police have obtained a warrant for the records of a phone number they hope will lead to whoever placed a phony 911 call to a Milwaukee fire station so burglars could make their move. The heist happened in the wee hours last September. A caller dialed 911 to report his son was unconscious and he couldn't wake him.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12

The city has rejected plans to hire a consultant to review staffing shortages and other needs at the local fire department. Members of the Common Council, in a 10-to-5 vote, defeated on Tuesday a resolution that would have allowed the city to hire Missouri-based consulting firm Fitch & Associates, which some city officials had hoped would help them vet fire department funding requests.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sheboygan Press

Crews responded Tuesday afternoon to reports of a vehicle that was on fire and rolling toward a steakhouse on Madison’s west side, according to a release. The Dane County 911 Center received at least nine calls around 1:30 p.m. reporting a vehicle that was on fire and parked between the AT&T store and Longhorn Steakhouse on Gammon Road, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISC-TV News 3

La Crosse's fire chief says finding a location for a new station on the south side is a priority for the new year. Chief Gregg Cleveland says money has already been set aside as part of the city's capital improvement budget to buy land for a new station. The city hasn't built a new fire station since 1967, and an assessment done last year found response times at the southern edge of the city to be lacking.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: news8000

A fire broke out early Wednesday inside a Concord Fire Department station as firefighters were sleeping inside the building. The flames started inside Station 2 in West Concord just before 1 a.m. Chief Mark Cotreau said three firefighters who were sleeping on the second floor were awakened by smoke detectors and saw a haze of smoke.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCVB-TV ABC 5 Boston

Marion Rural Fire Department mourns the loss of one of their own. Monday night, Amy and Freddie Dimmery, both volunteer firefighters with the Marion Rural Fire Department, were t-boned on Highway 76. Amy, didn’t make it and her husband suffered serious injuries. Chief of the Marion Rural Fire Department, Billy Wallace, was on the scene along Highway 76 Monday night and like the rest of the department, he is taking the loss to heart.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMBF-TV NBC Myrtle Beach

City Commissioner Susan Chapman is under fire this week for sounding a siren about ambulances using Orange Avenue. In an email last Friday with the subject line "Ambulance scofflaws," Chapman chided two specific ambulances driving to and from Sarasota Memorial Hospital for repeatedly using Orange Avenue to bypass the Lift Station 87 construction that has shut down a portion of Osprey Avenue.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Herald Tribune.com

A new wildfire-fighting plan to protect a wide swath of sagebrush country in the Western U.S. that supports cattle ranching and is home to an imperiled bird will likely continue after the Obama administration ends, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday. Jewell spoke after receiving her last update at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise where managers oversee the nation's firefighting resources.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Idaho Statesman

VIDEO - While a Kansas City firefighter was on duty, two men kicked in his front door and stole his belongings. It happened Saturday morning as two men broke in to the home while a camera was rolling. Police are still searching for those two, who they believe have been targeting other homes in the area.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WREG.com

The Wood County Fire Chief’s Association reports area fire departments responded to eight fires from Nov. 26 to Jan. 2. The time frame coincides with area fire department's Keep the Wreath Green campaign. Fire departments in Wood County, along with other departments place a wreath with green colored bulbs on their building and for each fire they respond to a green bulb is replaced with a red bulb.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2017 9:45:01 AM - SOURCE: WSAW-TV CBS 7 Wausau